


the moment that you laugh

by etoilette



Series: AU-gust 2020 [13]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Alternate Universe - Idols, M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:02:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25902517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/etoilette/pseuds/etoilette
Summary: “You guys are the hope of Japan’s idol world,” many a television interviewer has gushed at them before, and Akira’s always felt a little self-conscious about that. Next to Akechi Goro’s natural charms and appeal, he’s always felt little more like an ass in a suit. No matter what he wears, he’s still just a country bumpkin.ORTRICKSTARS, the top idol unit in Japan, is having yet another live show. They have their ups and downs, just like any other duo, but Akira would be lying if he says he wants to take Japan by storm with someone other than Goro.
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Series: AU-gust 2020 [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1860436
Comments: 5
Kudos: 114





	the moment that you laugh

**Author's Note:**

> TW if needed: drinking (not excessive but implied to be in the past), smoking
> 
> Written for Day #13 of AU-Gust: Rock Band AU. Except I'm idol trash so this is IDOLISH7. [Stan](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rudXbd-HWB0) [TRIGGER](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMBdSdUKo6Y)[by the way](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkHPsrScA00&t=300s)
> 
> If you're wondering if I wrote this just for the excuse to plug Idolish7 and TRIGGER, the answer is yes. The answer is a big yes, actually. When I read the prompt, I thought of yandere Akira at first stalking Akechi, but then, this. I absolutely was not using Ryu and Tenn as my cornerstores for inspiration and characterization, no sirree. 
> 
> I'm not late because I'm idol trash though, but more I didn't use my time like I planned to yesterday and now I'm hustling to finish the fic that I'm SUPPOSED to be writing for today so that I can get it out before midnight orz.

> **Ann** [16:37]: 0( =^･_･^)=〇 Good luck on your show tonight, Akira!!
> 
> **Ryuji** [16:37]: My mom set up the Blu-Ray thing to record it lol. Sucks that we can’t go to Tokyo to see you.
> 
> **Haru** [16:38]: We’re all so excited!! Good luck!!!!
> 
> **Yusuke** [16:38]: You did great in the show last night, so I’m sure you’ll be able to perform well today too. I am eager for your fire to ignite mine.
> 
> **Ryuji** [16:38]: LOLOLOL
> 
> **Yusuke** [16:38]: ???
> 
> **Makoto** [16:38]: Good luck!
> 
> **Ann** [16:38]: I hope that Akechi-kun doesn’t get too mad at you if you forget your dance moves again ^^;
> 
> **Futaba** [16:39]: Joker’ll be fiiiine. He hasn’t done that in, like, two months now, right?
> 
> **Akira** [16:39]: Thanks, guys. 
> 
> **Ryuji** [16:39]: BRO!!!!!!!!
> 
> **Akira** [16:39]: BRO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> 
> **Ryuji** [16:40]: (ง ͠ ͠° ل͜ °)ง
> 
> **Akira** [16:40]: (((c=(°ロ°;q
> 
> **Ryuji** [16:40]: Yo bro i haven’t even punched you yet wtf
> 
> **Ann** [16:40]: STOP
> 
> **Makoto** [16:41]: ANYWAY
> 
> **Makoto** [16:44]: Akira, are you just in the dressing room??
> 
> **Akira** [16:44]: Yeah, just hanging out with Akechi.
> 
> **Ann** [16:44]: Is he being nice to you? :( 
> 
> **Akira** [16:44]: He isn’t even looking at me
> 
> **Ryuji** [16:45]: God is he just reading the dictionary or something?
> 
> **Akira** [16:45]: Nah, he’s reading a novel

Goro is not, in fact, reading a novel, but Akira doesn’t think his friends and technical fans of TRICKSTARS should be let privy into the fact that Akechi Goro is a drunk chainsmoker half of the time. 

He’s sitting cross-legged in the chair next to Akira’s, sipping directly from a small bottle of whiskey that he must have snuck in because their manager Sumire would have snatched it away from him immediately. 

At least he’s not smoking anymore before shows. He still remembers having to always pack two sets of the same clothing because Goro would smoke anywhere and everywhere until his dad forced him to quit cold turkey. He hasn’t completely shaken the disgusting habit, because Goro leaps at any chance to rebel against his father and President of their talent agency.

The drinking isn’t much better but at least if Goro brushes his teeth or eats a mint before performances, no one could tell; he’s always been able to hold his liquor and he never brings anything more than a miniature or a small flask.

Akira does worry that one day Goro will slip up and faint or throw up on stage, but he doesn’t dare voice this out loud. Goro’s pride is higher and steeper than even Mt. Fuji.

“What’re you looking at?” Akira asks, because Goro is grimacing down at his phone. 

“This,” snaps Goro. He shows Akira his screen, which is open to the TRICKSTARS Instagram account. He recognizes the picture immediately as the one Kasumi took for Goro just a scant hour earlier: Goro is sitting in the dressing room chair, his trademark princely smile on his face as he holds up a box of flower-shaped wagashi in his gloved hands. ‘Very excited for today’s live concert! (◕˽ ◕ ✿) It’s spring so we hope for love to bloom in everyone’s hearts!’

The comment section is filled not only with generic tags and ‘Akechi-kun & Akira-kun, do your best’, but also unsolicited stories about first loves and heartbreaks. TRICKSTARS fans are using the opportunity to share their personal stories and garner advice or sympathy. Even though it’s technically a recent post, there are already over four hundred comments racked up, and even before Akira’s eyes, the number is still rising.

“We didn’t fucking ask them for their life stories,” Goro snarls, downing the rest of the flask and shoving it deep into his bag. 

Akira hums. He reaches into his own bag and takes out a box of painkillers. Goro never gets too obviously drunk but if he doesn’t hydrate himself after drinking and before a show, his migraines make him even more irritable than usual. Goro snatches it from him without even a thank you, downing two pills dry.

“You need to chill out,” Akira says, for probably the thousandth time since being assigned to TRICKSTARS with Goro two years ago. 

“You need to shut the hell up and mind your own business,” Goro snaps back but there’s barely any bite to his tone. “Go back to texting all your friends.”

Akira sighs and puts his phone face-down on the vanity. There’s no reasoning with Goro when he gets in one of these moods. The only thing he can do is let Goro’s frustration run its course. Technically, he supposes he can let Goro stew in his own mind - he’s enough of a professional to not let his volatile emotions take control of him during a show. But even if Goro considers Akira as nothing more than a particularly persistent pest at his side, Akira views Goro as his friend. Friends don't let friends wallow in sadness, though he doubts that Goro knows anything about normal friendship, considering his past and personality.

“I’m here if you want to talk,” Akira says. “Make sure you drink your water too.”

“Hmph,” Goro says, but he picks up an unopened bottle of water and chugs half of it in one go. It’s a version of Goro that no one else is allowed to see, except Akira and maybe the Yoshizawa twins. “I talk plenty. I don’t need to talk to you.”

“Unless you want to talk to your dad, I’m the only one you can be yourself with,” Akira points out.

“Don’t you think you have too high an opinion of yourself?” Goro sneers, but he doesn’t deny it. It’s hard to deny something that both parties know to be true.

The public image of TRICKSTARS is fairly simple. Kurusu Akira is tall, dark, and handsome, with an air of mystery and a sex appeal that has allowed him to take on a large number of commercials and modeling gigs on the side. Akechi Goro is a sweet and princely gentleman, all smiles and soft voices, and his experience in acting has garnered him a surprising amount of acting jobs in between his time operating as the second half of TRICKSTARS. Together, they cover a wide number of preferences and fantasies, which, when paired with their singing voices and natural synergy onstage, had propelled them to immediate stardom.

“You guys are the hope of Japan’s idol world,” many a television interviewer has gushed at them before, and Akira’s always felt a little self-conscious about that. Next to Akechi Goro’s natural charms and appeal, he’s always felt little more like an ass in a suit. No matter what he wears, he’s still just a country bumpkin.

He can be himself though, even when the discerning eye of the public scrutinizes his every action and word. He’s tall and dark from drinking lots of milk in his youth and not buying anything other than black for fashion coordination reasons. He is ‘mysterious’ because he doesn’t talk much, too self-conscious over his occasional country boy accent. His ‘idol personality’ is essentially still himself, just with prettier wording. 

TRICKSTARS Akechi Goro and actual Akechi Goro are two completely different people. For the first month of their acquaintance, Akira actually strongly suspected that Goro had split personality disorder, until he watched some of the movies and shows Goro had been in during his time as a child actor and realized that no, Goro is just talented.

“There’s five minutes before we need to be leave to make it to the stage,” Akira says, checking the time on his phone quickly before setting it down again. “If you say a word a second in the remaining time we have left, you could vent about three hundred things.”

Goro snorts out a laugh. “We’d need more than five minutes if you want me to do that.”

“Don’t worry about the fans on Instagram, by the way. Especially if they're on the TRICKSTARS account and not yours. Sumire and Kasumi can deal with that.”

“Hmm,” Goro is looking down at his phone again, a distant look in his eyes as he scrolls down, no doubt reading the comments on the Instagram post in question. “Yeah. It’s not as if they have anything else to do.”

Akira isn’t entirely sure whether Goro is being serious or not, if that was his idea of a joke. He isn't even one hundred percent sure that Goro's talking about their managers. He supposes it doesn’t matter, in the end.

A knock sounds at the door, and Goro’s lips twist in dissatisfaction as a young A.D. walks in, a harried look on his face as he exclaims, “Sorry, TRICKSTARS, but the show before you guys ended earlier than expected. TRICKSTARS needed on stage immediately.”

A year and a half ago, Akira would have panicked at this, practically throwing himself out of the room in a desperate attempt not to be late. Now he stands up leisurely, stretching out his limbs, and he smiles when he sees Goro mirror the action. 

“Well, partner,” Akira says, “are you ready?”

Goro smiles back, a dangerous glint in his eye despite the sweet tone of his voice, “Who do you think you’re talking to?”

X

Live shows are like a shot of adrenaline straight into Akira’s chest. Electricity thrums through his veins and he doesn’t know whether the pounding in his body is from his heart or from the bass line. He twirls in place as he sings “Moonlight Interlude” and out of the corner of his eye he can see Goro do the same thing in perfect unison. 

It was hard at first to pitch his voice as low as he needed it to be for some of their songs, so he could hit the high notes later, and it was even harder to sing as loud and as perfect as he needed while dancing at the same time too. When he was first signed on, he had been told that as long as his song was fine in the studio, they could play over it during lives so he could focus on dancing, but that had been an insult in Goro’s perfectionist point of view.

He isn’t so narcissistic as to admit in public that he’s watched recordings of their lives and listened to their songs on repeat for hours on end, but he has, and not even with a critical eye. He genuinely thinks that their performances are amazing, that he and Goro are visually stunning to look at when dancing together and smiling at each other. With illumination from the stage and the millions of lightsticks being waved from the audience, it looked as if they were the only two people in a world made of glass.

He would never say that to anyone either, least of all Goro, who looks down on any kind of sentimentality from Akira.

From “Moonlight Interlude” to “Ruby Fusion” to “Velvet Visitor” to “Tiger Eyes", the two of them worked through their entire discography, dancing and twirling all the while. The basic steps and choreography are the same no matter the occasion, but as they racked up more and more experience, they began throwing in new twists.

In this performance's “Ruby Fusion,” Akira cups Goro’s cheek, practically singing the lyrics, “ _baby dance to me till it’s dawn_ ” into his face. He grabs Goro’s waist and pulls him close, their hips flush against each other. Even over the booming music in his ears, he can hear the distant screams of the fans at the unexpected fanservice.

In “Tiger Eyes,” Goro grabs Akira by the lapels to sing, _“how many sweet traps of mine can you find”_ before spinning away like a flamenco dancer. It’s a dramatic pirouette that would look ridiculous on anyone else, but he manages to make it elegant yet flashy, his red cape flowing like a river of blood behind him.

It’s one of the best shows he’s had in a long time. In between each number, they thank the fans profusely, Akira keeping his reactions muted on purpose as a way to stay in character, while Goro jumps up and down in excitement, his arms waving at every corner of the room. It’s funny how things work out - Akira is the one who wants to run around the room at the love and attention, and Goro is the one who would really want to keep his appreciation down to a simple wave. 

“Thank you, everyone!” Goro calls out, cupping his hands around his mouth in an exaggerated shout. “I love all of you!”

“We love you too, TRICKSTARS!” they screamed back.

“Thank you for always showing our support!” Akira calls out as well, copying Goro’s actions. He can hear the screams of the fans yet again - they always loved it when the two of them did the same action in unison. He recalls reading somewhere an entire Buzzfeed listicle on “Moments That Prove TRICKSTARS Are Two Sides Of The Same Coin” and comparing them to a pair of cat boyfriends.

He’s not entirely sure why the word ‘boyfriends’ needed to be after ‘cat,’ but he’s never sure what the people at Buzzfeed are thinking about.

“I’ll see you all again next time!” Goro yells and he blows a kiss (to the increased screaming of the fans) and runs offstage, waving cheerily all the while. Akira waves again after yelling his goodbyes, and follows him.

As soon as the cameras and fans are gone, Goro drops the smile, his face immediately twisted in disgust as he loosens his collar. He clicks off his mic and says, “I’m so sweaty.”

Absentmindedly, Akira remembers a Buzzfeed listlcle article that was titled “Twenty-Five Things Akechi Goro’s Sweat Probably Tastes Like” and asks, “Does your sweat really taste like apples?”

(Akira doesn’t have any listicles dedicated to him and his weirdly-saltwater-tasting sweat because the general consensus of the fans is that Akira doesn’t sweat at all, for some reason.)

“Why have you been asking me about what my sweat tastes like after every live?” Goro asks, sounding exasperated. “This is the fifth time. The answer is no, by the way.”

“Oh, no reason,” Akira says, crossing out apples from the list. If he remembers, ‘coconut’ had been the next item. He’ll have to ask about that next week.

“The fans loved it this time. We did great today,” Goro says, and he sounds genuinely delighted. “Next time we should dance a little farther apart to keep them on their toes.”

“Why don’t we dance closer?”

“If we dance closer we’d be kissing.”

Goro laughs, loud and clear, high off success, and Akira laughs right along with him, even though he thinks that dancing so close that he could kiss Goro right in front of everyone sounds pretty good actually. Unfortunately, by the time they reach Sumire’s car, the rush of the live has already faded, leaving Akira dead on his feet and Goro even more irritable than ever. He’s rubbing at his eyes like a cranky toddler and the first thing he does when he scoots inside the van is start typing away at his phone. 

Akira slides in and shuts the door just as Sumire says cheerily from the front seat, “You guys did great today!”

“We know,” Goro says, already bored, even though he said the same thing not even ten minutes earlier. 

The ride is spent in quiet, the only sounds being Sumire humming under her breath and Goro still tapping away at his phone, muttering all the while as he does so. 

“‘My boyfriend keeps ghosting me and he didn’t even text me on Valentine’s Day’? Just throw out the entire boyfriend…”

Akira pulls out his phone and tabs to the TRICKSTARS official Instagram page, which is run by Kasumi because the last time Akira was allowed to post directly to it, he spammed the account with pictures of cats. 

The first post is no longer the one that Goro had been looking at earlier - the wagashi one - and is instead a picture of the two of them smiling at each other on-stage. He’ll have plenty of time to read that and the comments after. For now, he clicks on the second picture and scrolls down the comments section until he finds the one that Goro had been reading out loud.

Underneath it, Akechi Goro’s official account commented, “That’s unfortunate! I hope your friends and family are around you to support you ★~(◠‿◕✿) Never let anyone make you feel like you're anything less than the star you are!”

“I thought you wanted to tell her to throw out the entire boyfriend,” Akira laughs, and Goro glares at him, his fingers stilling on his phone.

“I can’t comment that from Akechi Goro’s official account,” he snaps. “I have an image to maintain and the _princely Akechi Goro_ would never say anything that crass.”

Sumire stops humming and, without taking her eyes off the road, says, “You can leave it to Kasumi to reply to all the comments from the TRICKSTARS account, Akechi-san. She was crying about how you're taking away her job.”

“Kasumi only ever says ‘thanks and continue to support TRICKSTARS’ to people. She never replies to comments like this one,” Goro says. He’s gone back to typing, and when Akira refreshes the page, he sees that Goro’s already written out a long reply about never giving up under someone’s comment about how their crush never acknowledges them. “If they’re taking time out of their lives to reach out to us or show their appreciation, the least we can do in return is reply to them all.”

“You’re going to wear yourself out,” Sumire scolds, and Goro growls under his breath.

Akira taps to the groupchat with his friends, where he sees almost 500 unread messages from when they had been essentially live-blogging the TRICKSTARS show to each other. 

> **Makoto** [22:18]: Great job on the show! Please drink lots of water and sleep early.
> 
> **Ryuji** [22:18]: Thanks mom
> 
> **Makoto** [22:18]: I wasn’t talking to you
> 
> **Ryuji** [22:19]: sry
> 
> **Akira** [22:20]: Show went great. In car now going home. 
> 
> **Ann** [22:20]: !!!!! It was fantastic!!!
> 
> **Yusuke** [22:21]: Watching the two of you dance together on stage, deep in the throes of passion, awoke something in me. Expect to see an artwork from me next week.
> 
> **Ryuji** [22:22]: Dude what
> 
> **Akira** [22:22]: Haha thanks
> 
> **Ryuji** [22:23]: Man it sucks that you gotta share the stage with Akechi
> 
> **Ryuji** [22:23]: Think you ever wanna debut as a solo act? I wanna support u, not that dude

Akira looks over at Goro, who is tiredly rubbing at his face with one hand while the other still typed diligently away, no doubt trying to get as many replies in as possible before he crashed for the night. Despite his obvious malcontent, Akira knows from experience that until Goro notices the hundreds of comments already on their newest post or other work duties pull him away from his phone, he won’t stop replying to their fans.

> **Akira** [22:25]: Nah. I love TRICKSTARS and Goro too much to go solo anytime soon.

Putting his phone away before he could see the barrage of questions that would undoubtedly be thrown his way, Akira settles back in his chair and occupies his time with watching Goro, his expression wearied and bored, continue to type out his thankful and detailed replies.


End file.
